The Freeware Mission started exactly one month ago. My Windows XP powered PC crashed and I had to reinstall everything in it. I decided to try something different: install only freeware programs except Windows XP (I might try Ubuntu later ;). I was a little bit uncertain at first, because I was using some commercial programs (Microsoft Office, Nero, BitDefender etc.) and I wasn’t sure that I could find good freeware alternatives. But I did after all. My computer can do now everything it could do before the crash, but now it has only freeware programs installed. Here is the list of essential freeware programs that I chose to install, please consider donating a few bucks to the people that made the open source programs presented in this list.

2. Ant Movie Catalog – A very important program for me, as I have more than 2500 movies in my collection. Although it has no official support anymore it still is the best movie collection manager, even if it doesn’t look as good as most competitors. It’s an open source program, maybe someone will take the source code and make it better.

Thanks for the list. Most match with the ones I use. Some choices are debatable, but again that is always the case.

# 19 August 2008 at 01:15

Johnny Karp said:

Thanks for visiting Anand. I agree that some choices are debatable, I even debated them with myself a lot And I’m sure that there might be better options available in some cases, but nobody knows everything. The only way we have to get a closer to perfection list is by… debating, don’t you think?

# 19 August 2008 at 01:52

Ian from Canada said:

I enjoyed reading your list and appreciate the effort that you put into it. My one thought is no firewall? Your thoughts please.Ian from Canada

# 19 August 2008 at 17:30

Johnny Karp said:

@IanI chose not to search for a firewall now because Windows XP has a firewall program and I’m using that one for the moment. I’ll search for one in the future but it was not a priority.

# 20 August 2008 at 01:07

Furqan said:

I appreciate your efforts & you did a fantastic job. I missed the firewall too!

@furqanThanks for your comment. About Avast and Antivir, I think the main reason was that Antivir takes a lot more resources while running in the background and that kinda annoyed me. About the firewall, I think I explained why I didn’t consider it necessary at this point, although I might have been wrong Cheers.

# 23 August 2008 at 03:07

TheManRetired said:

Thanks for the list, the firewall that I use and like and is free is the comodo firewall. It does come up with questions for you to answer when first installed to make sure that the programs running are yours and not something you want to block but after the first time unless they are changed it doesn’t ask again. I use a lot of the programs on your list but also think you should add clean452 as it is real good to clean out surfing tracks.

# 1 September 2008 at 09:42

Johnny Karp said:

@themanretiredThanks for your suggestions and for visiting. I’ll give those programs a try

# 1 September 2008 at 12:03

bassman said:

First used Avast when I bought XP-Pro64bit, it was the only 64bit free antivirus for a while. My main system multi-boots XP-Pro64, XP-Pro with Bricopack Vista Inspirat overlay, (amazing appearance!), and Ubuntu linux. Only security used on all my systems (3), and all the systems I have built and sold in the last 4 years has been Avast and Advanced Windows Care v2. This latter does much the same as Ccleaner, but a lot more as well, including a full spyware scan and removal, and immunises the system against 30,00 different spyware threats. In all the systems I have built and set up in the last 4 years, (Many hundreds), only one has been infected by a virus. That was because the owner decided that if one antivirus was good, then more must be better, he had also installed, Norton security suite, Macafee, AVG 8 and another that I no longer remember.I also just use the windows firewall, it’s only drawback is it’s lack of stealth, as a firewall it’s proven to be very strong and very easy to use. However with the hardware firewall inherant in my router, I don’t feel that is a problem, indeed, it has proven not to be over the last 4 years. However, the debian install package of avast does not seem to want to install into Ubuntu linux, if anyone has any ideas, I would be grateful for any help.

# 1 September 2008 at 15:05

hyenad said:

Have you tried or are you using anonymous surfing programs like peer guardian?

# 2 September 2008 at 06:10

MacZad said:

I didn’t see a web page editor. May I suggest Kompozer ( http://www.kompozer.net/ ) which I find perfectly satisfactory especially for a freeware program.

# 2 September 2008 at 07:48

Johnny Karp said:

@bassmanThaks for visiting and for your input. @hyenadNope, I didn’t try such programs, maybe because I thought they weren’t useful for me.@maczadYes, I played around with Kompozer a while ago. It is a good freeware program indeed, but I believe that it’s not a must have program for a regular PC user.

About the firewall, you could try Comodo Firewall, it works pretty good and i have seen some very good reviews about it (scoring very good).

Anton

# 4 September 2008 at 23:54

Anonymous said:

Hi Johnny, great list and thanks for your effort which has a lot of value for many people. There is no doubt in my mind that you already thought of categorising the list when getting bigger, maybe it is an idea to make also a category for (web)developers?

All the best,Ramy (from The Netherlands)

# 4 September 2008 at 23:56

Juroen said:

It might be interesting to take a look at Paint.NET (http://www.getpaint.net/)instead of the Gimp; for me the program feels a bit more intuitive.

# 5 September 2008 at 00:03

Johnny Karp said:

@AntonThanks for visiting and for your suggestion, Comodo Firewall is on my “to be tested” list

# 5 September 2008 at 00:51

Johnny Karp said:

@RamyThanks for your suggestion. I am still thinking about what to do when the list will get bigger… I’m planning to publish a new list at the end of this year with the freeware programs that I will find until then. Your suggestion is very interesting and I might do what you said. Thanks

# 5 September 2008 at 00:53

Johnny Karp said:

@juroenIndeed, I’ve been hearing a lot of good things about Paint.NET, so I’m planning to give it a try sometime soon.

# 5 September 2008 at 00:54

Hein said:

U could have started your freeware mission with one of the major linux distro’s like ubuntu, mandriva, fedora or suse or debian. U would have had the advantages of a repository containing entries for all kinds of freeware, easy and flawless installs and an updating and upgrading mechanism that is automated and coordinated in a package management tool.Would be less a mission than a guided tour.

# 5 September 2008 at 01:03

Tessa said:

Hi, I think the best free personal use firewall is Sunbelt. The free version has less options of course than the full version, but works fine!

# 5 September 2008 at 01:06

Poktor said:

For spyware-checking, there’s nothing better than the free tool “Spybot Search and Destroy”. This one also has a very good realtime resident checking tool on board. A MUST for everyone and even BETTER than MS’s Defender!

# 5 September 2008 at 01:46

Kowboy said:

Great initiative. Nice list with some useful tools. Some of which that are new to me. Two free tools that I like that are not on the list: VLC Media Player (all codec included, low memory usage) and AVG Anti-Virus.

You might want to check out FastStone’s ImageViewer (www.faststone.org). It’s free and for me personally it works faster and has more features than IrfanView (but off course that’s a personal opinion).

Sander (Netherlands)

# 5 September 2008 at 02:43

Anonymous said:

Oh, and one more suggestion. Do you know Gizmo’s tech support alert (www.techsupportalert.com/). He’s got a small community investigating free software in many categories. You may find useful reviews there or send in some of your own.

Regards,Sander (Netherlands)

# 5 September 2008 at 02:46

Robbetje said:

hi johnny, thanks for the list, quite impressive and i use most of them too.i only use the free-av anti virus tool; is there much difference?Keep up the good work!!

# 5 September 2008 at 02:55

Anonymous said:

It’s a great list. Many of the programs where are not new for me, but nevertheless..

@heinMany people suggested that I should try Linux, and I think I will someday. I wasn’t quite ready for such a big change right now.@tessaThanks for your suggestion.@poktorI tried Spybot Search and Destroy but I think that the antispyware program that I chose is better. But I agree that it’s better than MD Defender @kowboyThanks. I used VLC Player too, and it was quite tough choosing between VLC and GOM Player, the reasons are explained in the respective article. It was as tough picking the best one between AVG and Avast!, I think both are very good.@SanderYes, FastStone Image Viewer is a very good program indeed, I just prefer IrfanView for now.@RobertQuite a list you have there yourself! Thanks for the suggestions.@DutchMarkI tried SUPER but I chose FormatFactory instead because some reports claim that SUPER contains spyware, and I don’t want to take a chance as long as I can a use good program that is certainly spyware free.

# 5 September 2008 at 03:27

Anonymous said:

we not use also Linux instead of Windows XP….???

# 5 September 2008 at 03:30

Anonymous said:

I believe I missed Imageburn. great freeware program for burning images files etc.It’s free and very easy to use

# 5 September 2008 at 04:50

Johnny Karp said:

ImgBurn is a good program indeed, but since I can burn, build and even mount disc images with StarBurn I think I don’t really need ImgBurn. The only problem is that StarBurn only supports .iso images, but I can live with that.

# 5 September 2008 at 04:54

Anonymous said:

You do understand that freeware is not the same as Free Software, and that us Free Software fans kinda dislike being lumped together with the often-malware-containing freeware group, don’t you?

# 5 September 2008 at 05:37

Johnny Karp said:

Yes, I know that freeware and Free Software are different things, and I’m trying to promote only the programs that don’t contain malware and stuff like that. I’m also trying to promote open source programs, they are the real free software, but unfortunately I didn’t find open source programs to cover all the categories. I hope that one day I’ll have only open source software in my PC, I think you do too.

# 5 September 2008 at 06:00

Matteo Starri said:

Hey, my suggestion: Foxit reader, maybe the best pdf reader around. And surprised about not seing VLC in the list..

# 5 September 2008 at 06:04

Johnny Karp said:

@Matteo StarriThanks for your comment. Again about VLC – I had to choose between VLC and GOM Player. It was a tough decision, but I think that GOM Player has a lot more to offer – I’ll just mention subtitles support and flash video support. I’m not saying that VLC is not a good program, it’s an outstanding program, but GOM is now better, at least for me it is.

# 5 September 2008 at 06:21

Anonymous said:

I cant see HAMACHI ( logmein ) in the list..Where is crossloop ? ( remote acces to other computers )

# 5 September 2008 at 06:29

Anonymous said:

Great list but there are too many overlapping programs, IMO.

CCCP comes with media player classic and Zoom player, I don’t see a need for VLC or GOM.

Another archive utility: IZArc (comparable to winrar, except free)

DVD Decrypter and AutoGK also deserve mention.

Spybot Search and Destroy and Spyware blaster aren’t on this list ;[.

Really, you don’t need many of these programs. Most of them are remotely situational and/or just supplement features already available. If you were going for a minimalistic system you could cut at least 31 of those out.

# 5 September 2008 at 06:49

Johnny Karp said:

CCCP comes with Mplayer Classic and Zoom Player, but I didn’t install those, because I had GOM. I installed CCCP only for the codecs. About DVD Decrypter and AutoGK, I agree that they deserve to be mentioned, and they are mentioned in the respective episodes of the Freeware Mission. I chose other programs instead of them in the respective categories, so they are not mentioned in the final list. The same goes for Spybot. About your last remark, this list contains the programs that I chose to install in order to have the same features available on my PC that I had before the Windows crash. The only difference is that this time I’m using only free programs. I’d appreciate very much if you would try to read the whole story, not just this article, before commenting. Thanks.

# 5 September 2008 at 07:11

Eric P. said:

Thanks for this great list ! I did non know about a lot of these applications. I’ll try them now.

By the way the comments are all but unreadable (at least in chrome)when viewing the main page, the Black on gray type for posted comments wiped me out, maybe you can adjust your template?

I have added you to my feed window,

# 5 September 2008 at 08:09

Johnny Karp said:

@eric p.Thanks for your comment and for visiting, I hope the information is useful to you.@tombranderThanks, I’ll check out your site soon. About the comments layout, I’m trying to solve the problem, hopefully it will be done soon.

# 5 September 2008 at 08:26

ed said:

Interesting, but in all honesty, I already got most of my programs to be freeware except XP and Photoshop. Actually, photoshop is the only thing stopping me to go to Ubuntu because Gimp, really, is no substitute for Photoshop. If you are happy with it, I would advise to use Ubuntu should you crash again

Hmm, I share your opinion Ed (see above), for me the same.thats why i use dualboot.( still issues with setting up virtual OS in Linux. well, when I have time

cheers : DoubleDutch

# 5 September 2008 at 11:46

Anonymous said:

Great List !I use for Spybot (must have !)auslogics disk defrag, freebyte backup, sharepod (not for my videopod) and of course besides my regular program ClamWin free anti virus. Its not an active scanner but great for your weekly computer sweep.

Some other programs I use:-KMPlayer-Pandora Recoveryand for your mobile device-GPSdash2-ClearTemp-PocketPoiedit-TCPMP player-Pocket TV-GoogleMaps

JGE

# 5 September 2008 at 13:26

Johnny Karp said:

@WamorThat looks very, very interesting. I’ll wait for a beta release maybe… But my fingers are getting itchy If this one goes well there will be a revolution!@JGEThanks for sharing your favorites with us.

# 5 September 2008 at 14:23

EJ said:

Thanks for the great list.Suggestion for a drawing program: Inkspace, a open-source vector graphics editor similar like Coreldraw.

Eric J

# 5 September 2008 at 15:26

Johnny Karp said:

@ Eric J.Thanks for the suggestion, I’ll add it to the “to be downloaded” list

# 5 September 2008 at 15:46

Anonymous said:

YOU ARE FORGETTING THAT ALL THIS IS SHIT WHEN YOU ARE USING BORROWED SOFTWARE!!! GET UBUNTU

# 5 September 2008 at 16:58

Ian said:

great list – i actually already use most of the ones you’ve mentioned, although i agree that some of the items are debatable. spyware terminator, sandboxie, ultimate defrage free public edition, xinorbis, vlc, system protect, launchy, autoit/autohotkey, daemon tools, and wubi should be added to the list

# 5 September 2008 at 20:48

Anonymous said:

get ubuntu, seriously

# 5 September 2008 at 21:13

Bart said:

A great list! The alphabetical listing is nice to see if my favorite freeware applications are there. However, may I suggest a functionality listing (including good and bad alternatives) so that I can quickly find your recommended applications for firewall, anti-virus, photo-editing etc.

# 5 September 2008 at 23:38

the0wl said:

Hi there! I’m an Ubuntu user, myself, but have tested most of these programs in Win2k and XP over the past several years, and I teach CompTIA A+ Certification Courses in Windows. I’m an ardent fan of Open Source, and espouse it in my classes. Only on thing: I’d add VLC Media Player from VideoLAN. I’ve used it in both Windows and Linux environments, and now its my primary video player.

Cheers;Ed

# 5 September 2008 at 23:51

DikkieDick said:

I’m familiar with a bunch of the programs on that list. We’re running Vista at home. I see some programs on the list which I will try on Vista.What are you using for mail? Because I miss Thunderbird, or I must have overlooked it.Greetings, Dick

# 6 September 2008 at 01:34

Johnny Karp said:

So, I see that many of you tell me to get Ubuntu. I will, I but I’m just waiting to get a few quiet days that would allow me to install it and play around with it in peace About VLC player, I think I have already explained why I chose GOM Player instead of VLC.@ DickRight now I’m not using any program for email.@BartI thought about having a functionality listing. I will pusblish such a list maybe at the end of this year.

# 6 September 2008 at 02:01

Roj said:

The best defragger is a new one from the makers of CCleaner. It is called Defraggler. It has a nice GUI, and can defrag individual files, you can select just the fragmented files, or do a regular defrag. I’ve tried all the defraggers out there, and this is the first one I really like!

Roj from Canada

# 6 September 2008 at 08:11

Johnny Karp said:

@ rojI did hear a lot of good things about Defraggler. It’s on my “to be tested soon” list

That is a long list so far.I would give you some sugestions to add to that list.When using torrents you might want to test bitlord.And for cleaning up your system I like to use Advances WindowsCare V2 Personal.

Thanks for your suggestions.@RichardAdvanced WindowsCare V2 Personal was suggested to me by many people, so I decided to test it. The review will be published here tomorrow

# 7 September 2008 at 03:20

haakoo said:

Hi,

I think its a great list with alot of time spent to put it together.Though it’s a bit limited,only video and audio and system tools.What about vector editing,like inkscape And webdesign,like NVUDo you have any comments in that area or is it a future project?

Hans

# 7 September 2008 at 04:12

Johnny Karp said:

@haakooI’m planning to expand the list in the future, but for now I just wanted to have a bunch a freeware programs for the daily PC tasks. The list will gradually grow bigger and bigger, but that will take time, more time, and more time.

# 7 September 2008 at 06:38

EJ said:

Hi,Told you 6 september about a open-source vector program! I misspelled it, must be INKSCAPE, on http://www.inkscape.org/

# 7 September 2008 at 15:38

Johnny Karp said:

@EJI checked out their website, the program features look quite impressive indeed. Thanks.

# 7 September 2008 at 23:21

Fonzie said:

Hi, nice and impressive list, but i’m missing file-managers. IMHO there’s no better than Total Commander.

# 7 September 2008 at 23:46

Rob said:

You can add , revouninstaller as BEST uninstaller program .. Im missing it in your list

# 8 September 2008 at 01:22

Kowboy said:

Hi Johnny, after my previous post I tried GOMplayer and I agree that it has some additional features that ALV Player is lacking (e.g. flash player and on screen display). GOM is now my default player.

Another suggestions that is default installed on my machine is CuteFTP. If you are not using Open Office it is useful to print FTP files from Office files or Explorer.

Cheers (and isn’t it great how one post can draw so much attention?)

# 8 September 2008 at 04:14

Anonymous said:

Hi, i would just like to make one very nice suggestion for this list, which i found recently myself.Microsoft has a utility that you can download for free that can mount ISO files just like a hard drive. This utility is not as user-friendly as alcohol, but what the heck, its free! Link!

# 8 September 2008 at 09:51

Anonymous said:

I think the Linux fanboys should leave this topic alone. If you’re so keen on freedom, then don’t (attempt to) force your software on people. Go to your favourite Linux community forums instead.

This guy did a good job selecting free and clean programs and although some are not open source that doesn’t mean they’re useless.

# 8 September 2008 at 11:06

Johnny Karp said:

@FonzieI think that you are right, not including a file manager is a mistake. Will be solved in the next list @robCCleaner has an included uninstaller, so I didn’t want to get another program just for that.@kowboyI think you’re mistaking CuteFTP for CutePDF They’re both cute Actually I’m using PDF Creator for that purpose, and I’m using OpenOffice too. And about the attention… yea, it’s great!@anonymous1I can use StarBurn to mount iso files and it works very well, so I really don’t need that.@anonymous2I never said that these are absolutely the Best programs around, it is just my opinion, and having this blog means that I want to hear other opinions too. And each person can make up his own mind, taking what he or she needs from every point of view. So I agree with you, we shouldn’t be so radical.

# 8 September 2008 at 11:46

Erwin said:

Hi Johnny,

Thx fotr the freeware list. I use a couple of them and find a lot of them useful. Do you know if there are any initiatives like yours for business software? Like free crm system, billing system etc?

Regards,

Erwin

# 8 September 2008 at 15:00

Johnny Karp said:

@ErwinThanks for visiting. About the business software… it’s really not my piece of cake, because I hardly understand anything about business… I had great ideas that I let other people use for free, so maybe I’m not made to be a businessman. However, I found and open source billing software that might be useful for you. It’s called Jbillinghttp://www.jbilling.com/Please tell me if it’s any good. If I come across other free programs in this category I’ll try to let you know.

So much I could comment on here, as a webmaster of a popular download wesite and someone who has run download websites since 1997, but I will stick to commenting on two things that are simply wrong, starting with:

“You do understand that freeware is not the same as Free Software, and that us Free Software fans kinda dislike being lumped together with the often-malware-containing freeware group, don’t you?”

This is the dumbest statement I have ever read, or damn close. Think about how you got to this statement. You actually decided that freeware and free software are two different things. Yoy then decided if you capitalized Free Software it stands for something else. STOP confusing things. Free is free, its malware free or its not. Your helping no one. Please take this up with your psychiatrist in todays session and be sure to bring along your “Free Software fans” which I assume are like pretend friends.

Finally, regarding Spybot VS Windows Defender, the comment to rely solely on Spybot is wrong and again dangerous. Spybot has sucked for a long time now. Its Tea Timer has never worked correctly. Definitions come out once a week on the same day as if Malware does that too. Windows defender? Good one, someone uses that? Ive never seen it find, nor do anything. Malware rapidly changes, hence the programs that remove it go up and down in their effectiveness. Hence, SuperAntiSpyware is currently the best.

# 9 September 2008 at 07:13

Anonymous said:

You should definitely try Ubuntu! I was faced with a similar situation after Vista died twice on me within 6 months of getting my PC! Installed Ubuntu on a whim and haven’t looked back since. Good list though for people unwilling to break ties with Windows.

# 9 September 2008 at 09:21

The Knitter said:

Very brave of you. Pioneering even, especially if you go the whole way and install Linux.

Some of you choices are excellent as I use them myself, and others are bound to be debated and argued over but all in all I hope you’ve started a trend – a trend I may even follow.

Well written piece too.

# 9 September 2008 at 09:56

Anonymous said:

I am a “simple” user of a computer. Tried the freeware programs I needed. Excellent!

Thanks

# 9 September 2008 at 11:20

Johnny Karp said:

@MajorAttitudeI’m really impressed that you read the comments However, I think that since you are quoting and replying to some comments you should have mentioned the authors of those comments. It would have been easier to identify the persons you were speaking to.@The KnitterThanks for the kind words. About Linux, I’m definitely looking into that possibility, but now that I have only freeware in my XP PC… it seems to be running better I’m curious to see when the next crash will come @ all the anonymous commentsPlease write a name at the end of your comments, any name. If you do that it would be easier for me to reply.

# 9 September 2008 at 11:50

Richard said:

Hello Johnny,As I was reading your freewarelist, I missed a free addon for browsing.For the IE there is Avant Browser (www.avantbrowser.com) where there are several extra’s. The one I love the most is mousegestures.And resently they created Ocrabrowser as an addition of Firefox. (www.orcabrowser.com)It has the same extras as Avant has but it now is build on firefox 3.0 and is selfsupporting. So it does not need firefox preinstalled.

# 9 September 2008 at 11:59

eric said:

@Majorattitide:

There is a difference in Free Software and Freeware.

Free software is often software with ad-ware or spy-ware.

Freeware (often Open Source) is software whitch is ad-ware and spy-ware free.

I think you are affraid you see the number of visitors to your site wil decrease becouse of this Blog.

the next weekend I’m going to reisntall my system with only Freeware mentiond on this list.

@Jonny Karp:

I am going to make a Dutch blog about this (was thinking about it for a ling time) and link to this one.

Great idee, i am keep coming back to check for updates on this list or if I find anything else to update you.

# 10 September 2008 at 02:09

Johnny Karp said:

@EricA Dutch blog about this is a great idea. I don’t know anything about the Dutch market, but since I had thousands of Dutch visitors… I guess they are interested in this topic. If there is anything I can help you with please let me know. A good and cheap start will be a blogger hosted blog with a custom domain.Cheers.

# 10 September 2008 at 02:44

Anonymous said:

I’m not sure I understand. Why wouldn’t you just switch to Ubuntu. Most of the functionality you describe here is preinstalled on Ubuntu (or can be installed with the click of a button). It looks like it was a ton of work to cobble this all together on Windows XP.

# 10 September 2008 at 06:20

Johnny Karp said:

My system will become soon a dualboot system (Windows XP and Ubuntu). I paid for my XP after all, so I’m going to use it a little bit more And as I said before, I’m curious to see if running it with only freeware programs makes it more reliable. Seems it does, so far.

# 10 September 2008 at 08:42

UncleAaron said:

We have Comodo Firewall at work. I like it’s features, but for the most part, after installing a program, the pop-ups for allowing programs to add folders and getting access to the internet is quite annoying.

Thanks for suggesting DropBox, I didn’t know it existed. I’m going to test it soon.

# 11 September 2008 at 02:36

Anonymous said:

Nice list…and quiet a really good idea!!!

for all the Linux/Ubuntu-fans:yes its nice to have but not the one and all…. who wants to have windows…why not? I´m just playing games on my computer sometimes…. but with Linux/Ubuntu? That´s not possible unless i use a virtual or a dual-boot system and that´s not better than using Windows at all the time.. why using two systems????

Why not add “Openproj”, a very good and free replacement for the expensive Ms-Project.

Cheers,

Arthur

# 12 September 2008 at 04:03

Anonymous said:

good list, however I can name some other free programs for windows that are just as good/better than some you listed. For starters, IMHO spybot S&D is by far the best antispyware program available. Also, crimson editor is a great editor that does everything that notepad++ does. I tried out digsby, but found it to be awfully bloated, you should list pidgin on here. CCCP? I find KLite to be a better codec pack. I also prefer azureus over utorrent, but thats just a personal preference.

# 12 September 2008 at 11:00

Johnny Karp said:

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. For the last poster, choices will be debatable as long as human beings exists, everybody has his own preferences. I explained the reasons for my choices in the respective articles. The big mistake that I think I did with the list is that I did not post the alternative freeware programs I tested. I thought that everybody will go and read all the articles from the Freeware Mission “series”, and that was, obviously, wrong. I’m keeping that in mind for the next list, I will probably publish it around Christmas. Until then I’ll continue to test and review freeware and open source programs.

Great list, and you’re doing a great job with this project. Many of the mentioned freeware i use myself, mainly because they’re quick, fast and lightweight and easy to uninstall (delete. period). I really hate to digg endlessly in the windows register to clean up the mess… Keep up the good work. I will watch this site from now on, it’s one of my favourites! Oh, one last thing: No list is perfect, so why bother? It’s your list. Simple. And it should be that simple. If need for detailed information, one should ‘click and read’. It’s not fast food, is it

Cheers, from The Netherlands (yes, once again)

# 14 September 2008 at 10:22

Johnny Karp said:

@GioThanks a lot for your comment. It would be absurd to say that this list is perfect. But I’m very happy that the readers suggest their favorite programs, some of them are new to me. That’s how the next list will be better

# 14 September 2008 at 12:05

Gio said:

fair enough, I will give you my list when I’m back home Some posts argue about wich programm would be best, but I think it has more to do with personal flavors then having ‘the best programm ever’. Nevertheless, with all contributions considered, this list could become quite comprehensive and probably ‘fit for all’. Would be nice. Maybe some sort of user rating system? Or basic plus/minus report based on things like “no install (portable)”, “updates available” etc.

# 14 September 2008 at 14:01

Marc said:

Two of the most usefull tools I use: 1. Startupmonitor (http://mlin.net/StartupMonitor.shtml). Simple tool that shows when an entry is written to the startup hyves in your registry and the option to disallow them.2. Sequoia View (www.win.tue.nl/sequoiaview)SequoiaView uses a visualization technique called cushion treemaps to provide you with a single picture of the entire contents of your hard drive. You can use it to locate those large files that you haven’t accessed in one year, or to quickly locate the largest picture files on your drive.

# 15 September 2008 at 03:06

Johnny Karp said:

@GioI have already implemented the plus minus system and a rating system for the reviews I wrote after publishing the list. I think it’s a good way to give the reader a quick evaluation of the respective program.@MarcThanks for your suggestions, both programs look quite promising indeed. I will test them soon, at least I hope so.

# 15 September 2008 at 06:04

Anonymous said:

do you know of a free program that I can use to cut a video file?

# 15 September 2008 at 08:23

Johnny Karp said:

You have to tell me what type of video file you have to cut. If it’s an avi file I recommend VirtualDub.

# 15 September 2008 at 08:34

Joppe said:

Nice list. I think that you really thought it through. Pick your intended audience first, then create something. In this case you chose the regula, low intensity user, people who really can be helped by steering them in the way of good, sound and free software. And you did a very nice job doing that. And what I think is really nice is to consider that these user almost all have windows xp already installed on their computers. They don’t want to change, they wouldn’t know what to do with Ubuntu. And even I, I work with Ubuntu, I have three computers around me, at work and at home, with double boots, Ubuntu and Winows XP (vista). Ubuntu isn’t better for the day to day surfing and activities. Ever tried to install a Nvidia driver which was not in the repositories. (a nightmare for inexperienced users)I think, with this list, you nailed the ideal of how internet should and could be, and now because of you and all those freeware producing enthusiasts, CAN be.

I thank you.

# 16 September 2008 at 05:37

chandru4895 said:

Phenominal bit of work. I already use OOo,GIMP & some others. Your list is a revelation.Thank you

I also have gizmo’s newsletter – now Windows Secrets and giveawayoftheday.com – full progs for nix!

I also use peazip, foxit pdf reader, have used stuff from freeserifsoftware.com – older versions, but still very good, of their commercial stuff!

Photofiltre also worth a mention as is freeripMP3 and deepburner.

Very useful freeware – teracopy, unlocker and freecommander

# 18 September 2008 at 01:23

Bob said:

Sorry forgot Avira free antivirus, I know you get an annoying ad when it updates but have found it good and for belt and braces use trend microvirus housecall online freebie but only with windows explorer or Firefox.

My preferred web browser is Opera at the moment.

Also copernicus desktop search for finding things although there may be a better offer.

And don’t forget folder marker so you can make folders pretty and find important ones quicker!

# 18 September 2008 at 01:26

Bob said:

Sorry and also forgot Mmm for tidying up right click menus!

# 18 September 2008 at 01:28

jaja said:

Great list, picked up some new tools I didn’t know of. Don’t know if it has been mentioned but picassa 3 is what I think the best picture viewer out there at the moment.

# 18 September 2008 at 23:00

Anonymous said:

Thanks for the list. Many of your suggestions are already installed on my PC. WordWeb is a welcome addition to my freeware collection.

Alas, I was hoping to find a new suggestion for video editing software. Why hasn’t anyone created a quality freeware video editing studio for Windows?

If you’re considering SequoiaView, also have a look at WinDirStat. It’s very similar, but I prefer the interface of WinDirStat.

Tim

# 19 September 2008 at 12:08

Anonymous said:

no replacement for windows explorer in your list? I recommend xplorer2

# 19 September 2008 at 14:11

Colette from Ireland said:

Read down through your extensive list hoping to see some for a Mac. I did’t, but I was reminded of all the problems I had when I had a Windows computer – now I have a big smile on my face with my Mac. You could offer me ten super window computers for my mac and you would not have a chance of me going back to all those problems. As the saying goes, ‘once you go ‘mac’ you never go back!’

# 20 September 2008 at 01:41

Anonymous said:

Awesome list ! Here are a few good programs that may not have been mentioned yet. You can Google to find them.

I was also looking for a program that could close and/or start many programs at once … that’s how I got here in the first place, anyone has suggestions ?? I was using BatchRun for a long time and it was rock solid but it has been malfunctioning lately for unknown reasons …

Marc D.

# 21 September 2008 at 21:20

Johnny Karp said:

Sorry for the late relpy, I’ve been away from home last week. Here we go…@JoppeThanks for the comment. I agree that the main problem with Ubuntu are the device drivers, that wouldn’t recommend it for the average user. And yes, I think that I’m writing for the average user, because the advanced ones surely don’t need my help @chandru4895Thanks, I’m happy it’s useful for you.@Gr. NeusbeertjeI didn’t use it so far, I’ll try to give it a go some time soon.@BobThanks so much for your suggestions. I’m very happy that you chose to share your view with us.@TimAbout the video editing software, you’ll find some suggestions in the “Best Free Video Editor Post”. Unfortunately those programs are not as good as Avid Xpress or Final Cut, but I still hope that things will change. @ColetteYea, Macs are good, but they can be very, very expensive. I must use a Mac at work from time to time, I’m not that impressed though @Marc D.Thanks for your list, very good suggestions there. If your remember or find some other good free programs let us know

# 22 September 2008 at 11:45

Richard said:

Hello Johnny,As I would like to digitalise my tapes, do you have a suggestion for that?

# 22 September 2008 at 12:22

Johnny Karp said:

@RichardIf you’re talking about VHS tapes you need some hardware to do that. A TV tuner or a Video Capture Card. Or maybe you could buy a DVD Recorder and transfer your tapes to DVD. If you could give me more details about the situation I might be able to help you.

# 22 September 2008 at 12:59

Anonymous said:

Hi Johnny,

I enjoyed your list, I have been using most of the programs, but I find that most of them are on my one stop download page:http://www.filehippo.comIt’s the best!Programs are always updated etc.Take a look!

darn, did I forget to tell you I meant my audiotapes.So Johnny, I want to digitalize my audiotapes.

# 23 September 2008 at 11:27

Johnny Karp said:

@Richard I never tried to digitize audio tapes, I just threw them away… I think that Audacity might be a good software for that purpose, but you will need a pretty good sound card if you want good results. So, my advice would be Audacity (has some filters and stuff that you can use to clean some of the noise from the recordings) and a good sound card. Of course, a lot depends on your tape player, but I assume you have a good one. Good luck and tell me how it goes.

# 23 September 2008 at 12:29

Pep said:

Great initiative, I’m downloading your package right now to try it.Just some suggestions for your next version:From Holland (if it ain’t Dutch it ain’t much): Hitmanpro. It starts over 10 anti spyware programs to thoroughly clean your PC.Doublekiller: to find all the files that you stored two or more times, and clean up your disks.And for those who build dynamic websites: XAmpp. It installs an Apache webserver, MySQL database and PHP on your local system.Regards,Pep Gallenkamp

# 24 September 2008 at 12:58

Johnny Karp said:

@PepThanks for your input, HitmanPro seems to be a big hit in Holland. The new version 3 looks quite promising indeed.

# 24 September 2008 at 23:45

Anonymous said:

AVASTTTT AGUASGUuuahuadahuafduhauhuamy god are you crazy?

antivir please! antivir! the only free antivirus that does something! not only slow down the PC

# 26 September 2008 at 06:53

Johnny Karp said:

Chill out, man! You seem to have been struck by a virus yourself There’s no need to be that radical, I’m not going to uninstall it from your computer.

# 26 September 2008 at 08:54

Ranhiru said:

SpyBot Search & Destroy??? It is one of the SHOULD be included freeware!

# 28 September 2008 at 07:32

Johnny Karp said:

@RanhiruI chose SUPERAntiSpyware instead, I think it’s a lot better. Maybe you should try it and after that tell us how it went. Cheers.

# 28 September 2008 at 12:47

Dirty said:

Good stuff here.. I use a lot of them already and thanks for the heads up on others

I am a business user, so I miss some business tools. In my case I use Process Modeling tools. A great alternative to Microsoft Visio is a freeware I found called BizAgi Process Modeler (www.bizagi.com).Cheers.

# 2 October 2008 at 09:16

Anonymous said:

@Scott: Wikipedia says on freeware (and I agree): “Freeware is computer software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee.” The article does say freeware is often made available in a binary-only, proprietary form, but apparently not by definition. Is free software always freeware? I think so, but certainly not the other way around. Anyway, I think all software on this list classifies as freeware, even the open source software.

-Johan

# 2 October 2008 at 15:16

Anonymous said:

Hmm, perhaps I was wrong. The article at http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html suggests that there may be free software which is not available free of charge. “You may have paid money to get copies of free software…” So I guess free software may, or may not be freeware and freeware may, or may not be free software. Kthxbye.

-Johan

# 2 October 2008 at 15:24

Johnny Karp said:

@JohanPretty complicated As I said, I’m not going to get tangled up in various definitions, I’ll just call freeware programs that you can use for free and that don’t have their functionality crippled in order to get you to buy a full version. That’s kinda simplistic but sometimes it’s better to keep things simple.

# 2 October 2008 at 20:14

Ibrahim Hussein said:

My Desktop PC & NoteBook both are basically based on Freewares, except for the Windows XP, which actually I did not pay to have, it comes with the computer. I do use Ubuntu from time to time, but with the kinda work I do am not totally sold on switching.

Some of your choices were really weird!! lol.. But in the end it comes all to taste. For example I think the best video player is VLC. Well you basically have a great list, but still it needs some tweaking to make it "THE LIST".. But good work… keep it up…

# 3 October 2008 at 12:44

Derek said:

Great to see some love for Quintessential! I’ve been using this player for years.

# 3 October 2008 at 20:26

Bruce1940 said:

Hello Johnny, I enjoyed reading your list of free/open source software and the comments to you. I have been gravitating away from Microsoft for several years. I have considered trying Linux for a couple of years but was reluctant to risk disabling my computer if I messed up. Me fairly new laptop is running Vista. I haven’t liked Vista from day one. It’s too slow and bloated. About a month ago it started doing weird things. I finally resorted to doing a complete restore, something I have never had to do in 25 years of personal computer use. This still did not solve the problems so I finally bit the bullet and installed Linux Ubuntu. I REALLY LIKE IT. I haven’t got it doing everything I want yet, but I haven’t booted in Vista for a month now. One big problem that I haven’t worked out yet is that I can’t get any sound out of the headphone jack, and from the Ubuntu forum it seems that it is a problem with a lot of new users. A lot of the software that you have located is bundled with Ubuntu from the get go.Sorry for the long post, telling you basically what others have already said, but I just want to say that when you do get time to look into Linux and give it a try, I’m sure you will be happy with the results. Ubuntu boots faster, runs faster, shuts down faster and you learn more about you computer and operating system in the process. You mentioned in one of your answers to a comment that you have a concern about email. Ubuntu has a real nice email client (Evolution) that works real good. Cheers!

# 4 October 2008 at 13:58

Johnny Karp said:

@BruceThanks for sharing your computer story. I won’t give up on Windows XP for now because my PC is running fine, no problems so far after the crash and reinstall. I want to see how long it will last Cheers.

# 5 October 2008 at 04:45

Anonymous said:

Hey thanks 4 ur effort . Bro can u give me a freeware of ip hiding soft. i needed it very much

I don’t understand the rapidshare question. About IP hiding, maybe you need an anonymous surfing program. I would suggest Peer Guardian.

# 9 October 2008 at 03:27

Ben said:

Hey, Johnny, thanks a lot for all that beautiful work you have done. One alternative for a filerenamer : renamemaster.exe, extensive possibilities, no .net stuff, no installation. Another piece of software: autostitch. it stitches all pictures in one map automatically together and you won’t see where it stiched!Radarsync had more than a few missers when I used it so be carefull

# 10 October 2008 at 12:07

Baden-Joost said:

What a wonderful effort you have made on our behalf, Mr. Karp. I truly appreciate the effort and look forward to trying out some of the software here that I didn’t know about. I do realize how much time this takes, and to provide your results and opinions was a very thoughtful gesture.

Much good karma to you sir.

# 12 October 2008 at 14:31

Johnny Karp said:

@BenThanks for your suggestions, I’ll try those programs soon. About RadarSync, I think I have already found a good alternative program, the review will be posted here soon.

@Baden-JoostThanks for the karma I’m glad you found my work useful.

# 13 October 2008 at 10:28

Anonymous said:

I like your list of free programs, but i’m curious if I can use these also on a G3 apple laptop?

# 14 October 2008 at 09:39

Johnny Karp said:

I never used a G3, so I don’t know which operating system they work with. Some of these programs have Mac OS versions too, but I don’t know about G3.

# 14 October 2008 at 10:32

Djiest said:

For spyware, please consider testing Spyware Terminator. It has an integrated virus scanner (Clamwin), and offers realtime protection and HIPS (Host Intrusion Protection System).Besides that in includes Crawler toolbar, which offers the possibility for realtime checking of malicious websites.I’m using this for a week now and find it really nice.

# 2 November 2008 at 01:07

asger from denmark said:

Found your list through a link from freewarewiki. This is a very useful list. Freewarewiki had an updated review of Radarsync and what interested me is a new feature that lets you save all the software you like to download in a pack — basically for exactly the reason you made this list, in case you need to do a reinstall. I think I’m going to try to make a pack with some of the items from your list if you don’t mind. I’ll let you know how it goes.

# 2 November 2008 at 15:15

Mr. 5 Star said:

this is THE BEST all-around, all-purpose freeware list I’ve ever seen, HANDS DOWN!!

thanks so much!

# 2 November 2008 at 21:57

Johnny Karp said:

@DjiestThanks for the suggestions.@AsgerThat’s a great idea, please come back and let us know how it went.@Mr. 5 StarThanks for the compliment, I’m glad you found my work useful.

# 4 November 2008 at 05:13

LH said:

Hi Johnny,add Hitman Pro in your list! It’s a great combination of several anti-spyware software.Greets from Holland, LH

# 7 November 2008 at 02:56

Johnny Karp said:

@LHThanks for the suggestion, but HitmanPro is not really freeware. As a matter of fact, the latest version is not freeware at all.

# 7 November 2008 at 05:31

angono art city said:

very helpful compilation dude! thanks!

# 30 November 2008 at 10:37

Frank said:

Mission pack 3 has a virus in it, in the setup codec installer exe.
the virus is Win32 Adware-gen as reported by Avast.

@Frank
I know that Avast reports finding Adware (not a virus technically) is the codecinstaller.exe file. I installed it though and there are no problems to report so far. I checked it with some commercial antivirus programs at work and they all say it’s clean. So my guess is that Avast reports it as a false positive.

# 3 December 2008 at 10:09

Charles Richey said:

Personally, I like the gordian knot codec pack for video/audio codecs. Has all of the essential ones to hear or watch anything on the net. Malwarebyte’s free version of their anti-malware program is also a must have.

Its nice to see someone else turning to freeware.
There are so many freeware applications to replace the commercial software.
there are several other utilities that you might want to try out too such as Glary Utilities, Comodo Internet Security, Unlocker, Free Download Manager, File Extension Changer, NetMeter, TeraCopy, IsoBuster, BurnAware, Universal Extractor…. and the list goes on
once you try out ubuntu, you wont regret it!! don’t forget that you can always do the Wubi install!!

Great article. There are many freeware. The only commercial software that has my computer is the Microsoft Vista Basic, the other are freeware. I write about the comparison of freeware and Commercial Software

Very useful list. I will try some.
I have to suggest a better anti-virus program. It’s really an anti-malware program. In the virus arena it rates better than Kapersky finding a higher amount of viruses. On my computer it found and cleaned over 390 infections { I visit a lot of dangerous sites } and that was after I ran a free version of the Kapersky engine, Spybot S&D, Previx CSI and Panda Active Scan! The name is A-Squared Free by EMSI Software and as the name states, its free. PS. My computer hums now.

[…] 22, 2009Beginning the Journey: Five-Year-Olds Drive Their Own PBL Projects … January 22, 200951 Essential Programs For A Freeware Only PC January 22, 2009Widgetbox › New and Notable January 22, 2009mathfest » […]

I like your list very much and agree with a lot of your choices. I too stick with Windows firewall.

Anyway, keep up the good work.

# 28 January 2009 at 01:22

oigres said:

great list, i have to get all of this, at least the ones im not already using. thank you very much for compiling it all. you are forgetting the entire google desktop pack, i love the sidebar the most, and the Ctrl+Ctrl function is just amazing.

Get Ubuntu was my initial response to this post, but I’m actually posting from a Windows 7 computer. I use windows and ubuntu interchangeably, because I like Adobe CS4 for web work. Usually I have W7 running on my laptop and ubuntu running on my desktop.

I really also like Infrarecorder for burning cd’s and DVDs. I dunno if it has bluray compatibility though.

@Alex
Thanks for sharing your view. I have Windows XP and Ubuntu now on my computer. I have installed Infrarecorder but didn’t have the time to test it thoroughly. I’ll post the review sooner or later.

# 15 February 2009 at 20:33

will said:

the irony of this post is that its all windows softare, and is windows freeware… hehe but one a serious note, good post some good programs on there which i need to check out, thanks

Hey if you want to host your files and try a new freeware app go to http://g.ho.st/ they are offering 15g sharable storage with no limits it is also a very interesting concept it stands for globaly hosted operating system, you also get a neat e-mail address ending in @g.ho.st check it out and keep up the good work!

[…] 51 Essential Programs For A Freeware Only PC | Freeware Mission The Freeware Mission started exactly one month ago. My Windows XP powered PC crashed and I had to reinstall everything in it. I decided to try something different: install only freeware programs except Windows XP (I might try Ubuntu later . I was a little bit uncertain at first, because I was using some commercial programs (Microsoft Office, Nero, BitDefender etc.) and I wasn’t sure that I could find good freeware alternatives. But I did after all. My computer can do now everything it could do before the crash, but now it has only freeware programs installed. Here is the list of essential freeware programs that I chose to install, please consider donating a few bucks to the people that made the open source programs presented in this list. (tags: software windows tools utilities free list resources tech opensource freeware) Categories: YouTube videos Tags: Comments (0) Trackbacks (0) Leave a comment Trackback […]

Please donate your old boxes to a church-group or some needy student in these hard times! To comply with the law, and with Microsoft’s leasing policy, you can now replace Microsoft OS with the free (download from the net) Ubuntu OS, which can be set to erase the hard drive of all traces of the “illegal to give away ” Microsoft system and your private information, before donation! Now, explain to your lucky recipient that all the manuals they will ever need are available for free on the internet! Just ask for them in Google! OpenOffice, which is installed already is plenty adequate for homework assignments and with a little exploring, everything else can work well too! Happy computing!

Best is that you grab the FREE cdrom image, of more than 100 applications, and Suites of software, browsers, etc. from the Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society website.

When my Win95 system crashed in 1996, I switched to some distros of Linux, BSD, in a multibooting system! Never having to worry about the million Microsoft virus/mal-bots/spybots/exploits is great!

Current favorite Linux is at linuxmint.com

# 30 September 2009 at 05:25

Red said:

dude, why not just use non freeware with hacks? a lot easier and u get to keep all software you familiar with, i havent payed for any software on my pc ever and i got windows, adobe cs3, nod32 to mention just some of `em and hole lot of games.

# 30 September 2009 at 10:48

Cit Smith said:

It’s all good. Ubuntu is worth a try if you want to take it further, I have been using it for years now and haven’t had any major dramas. I will go back to dual booting with XP one day (when I get round to it) and will definitely be keeping it as open source as possible. Shit, I have an XP license so I may as well use it.

Excellent site! I love it! What an eye-opener for anyone who pays for equivalent programs. Explore. The world is our play ground.

Thank you for all this wonderful information.

GetJef =-)

# 17 October 2009 at 08:25

Jackson said:

Great post! But the best free video converter i have used is iwisoft free video converter.

# 7 December 2009 at 05:43

NotNeeded said:

The pagination hype that is taking over almost all blogs lately is driving me crazy. I don’t want to (re)load more than 10 pages to see your “51 Essential Programs”. The reloading is slow, it’s annoying, and you can easily fit more than, say, five programs on a single page. I know it’s all about loading ads (and possibly generating revenue), but this is basically like flipping the bird to your readers saying “I don’t care if this is highly annoying to you.” Way to go.

I approve of these choices but I am surprised that OpenOffice was not listed. The open-source software replaces MS office and does it quite well. Even better, it is constantly being improved by a myriad of developers. Then I know of not malware that operates through using its features.

There is even a special version for Macs called NeoOffice.

VLC media player is a free alternative to Windows Media Player and seems to work with fewer bugs on a greater variety of media.

The GIMP performs well as a replacement for Photoshop even though it’s interface isn’t as pretty. But for about 95% of users it does everyting you’ll ever need.

All of these have Mac versions that perform at least as well as the PC versions.

# 1 January 2010 at 20:20

esa said:

How about talking about installing an -open source operating system- instead of promoting freeware apps running on the crappy Micro$oft operating system…

# 1 January 2010 at 20:51

said:

@hyenad and Johnny Karp
PeerGuardian has nothing to do with being anonymous, it simply blocks connections with specified IP ranges.

or set up a VPN with ItsHidden, go to http://www.itshidden.com for details on how to set it up and to sign up for the service. After almost two years I have never gotten a single piece of spam after signing up and it’s totally free and anonymous with little loss in surfing speed.

Key Logger Invisible keylogger software runs hidden in the background and automatically records d passwords records each pressed keys. keylogger is absolutely invisible in all operating systems such as Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Vista and is not detected. It takes screenshots within the specified time interval. Software stored all information in an encrypted log file and sends the report to the specified email, via FTP. Itis easy-to-use surveillance tool that allows you to secretly track all activities from all computers. Nobody will be able to find out if keylogger is installed in your computer as its folders are hidden from all users in your system.

Email account and login passwords are recovered instantly with the help of our software. It can recovers saved Web sites and forms passwords and supported all versions of IE. You can recover and restore lost or forgotten password ever entered on your PC. Software support all multilingual passwords with full install/uninstall support. It can easily recovers passwords entered in Web forms AutoComplete entries and Web sites passwords, search engine accounts passwords, Online shopping websites account passwords. you can save the recovered password information at user specified location.